In regards to your trivia question hash, I think its D as well, but that really could have been a cover for 'E', which was their true intention. They were running out of space for their subjects to live in their lands, so they needed to go conquer some more land so it wouldnt get too crowded.

In short: I think its E, but it should be D, just to give some sort of believable reason behind it

Posted by Ice Kachang @ 9:16 PM

The last crusade had something to do with Harrison Ford

Note: Charlie, C was saying that you gain passage to heaven by executing the infidels - not that you were sending the infidels to heaven.

2) CKilling them is not murder, but both your pathway and their pathway to heaven. Any act is justifiable if the intention is for the benefit of the receiver. On that note, if any one of you wishes to go to heaven, i don't mind lending a helping hand =)

A. Said that Muslims were not humans, so killing them should not matterB. Said that the Bible misquoted Jesus, and what Jesus actually said was "Love thy neighbour, if he is a Christian"C. Said that Muslims were infidels, so killing them was not murder, but your pathway to heavan.D. Said Christian rule of Jerusalem was the God-given rite to the devout Christian and that Jerusalem must not be left in the hands of infidels.E. None of the above (i.e. just said - we need their oil == no moral justification, just political)

Please post what 1) u think the answer is2) u think the answer should be

Posted by Hash @ 9:54 PM

Goddamn compliance issues. If you use IE try and download the beta version of 7 and see if this page looks the same.

Pic I found on MSN mainpage:

Theres a new constellation called the Eva Longoria. Something to look at on those lonely nights Jono.

James, remember how we were talking about those fantastic double/triple/quadruple+ negatives. Well I've found a little example from a "Viscount Simonds". (john should well love these):

The Crown cannot succeed in this essential aspect of the case unless it is established as a general proposition that an option to acquire shares at a fixed price in such circumstances as those of the present case is not a perquisite of office.

Three is okay - not that bad. They could have just said: the crown can succeed if they show that the option is not a perquisite of office. But adding negatives leaves that small obscure, but very important, room in the venn diagram. Judges would be pro at DSS and discrete maths.

Posted by butters @ 12:38 AM

Friday, April 28, 2006

lame jokes time ::

What would be an appropriate name for a right wing extremist musical terrorist/political group?

Yo Yo Hamaas

Posted by Hash @ 7:29 PM

Musashi is a negative.

Posted by butters @ 7:22 PM

Hmmm, there's a dinner thing going on at around 6:30, so dunno about the turn out. But then again, I have a b'day drinks thing at around 9 so I won't be going. Guess it's 1v1 at this stage Hash.

And I should be down for Linda's b'day. My last assignment is due on the 18th, so I should be ok...

Posted by Hoey the Fish @ 3:20 PM

so is ne1 down for tennis tomorrow arvo, say about 4 onwards? (since i'm working till 3)

Posted by Hash @ 12:18 PM

I am down for Linda's birthday.

Ahhhh Zachary's!! The $15 unlimited pizza and one free drink deal?Yeah...went there with the Canadian coffee girl for her 21st thing...end of story.

Late night it will be tonight.

[Edit: tonight...was a Purdue night all over again. Might catch a bus out to uni soon, avoid peak hour, then die on the physics futon couch for an hour, then go to 4 hours of class and fill out 3 hours of job apps]

Posted by IONize @ 1:00 AM

"I did my PhD at an nth tier university, where n is pretty large."-Forum post at career discussion forum.

Posted by Giacomo @ 12:22 AM

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Looking for partner to go to Linda's birthday.

Specification:Face: Jennifer ConnellyVoice: Suzanne VegaType: ENFx

Interested parties call: 0425 236 285

Posted by Giacomo @ 11:34 PM

Hi guys,

Just a quick note to say please keep the Friday 19th May night free as I will be holding my 21st birthday celebrations then. I'm yet to finalise details, but at the moment this is how it's looking:

DATE: Friday 19th May

TIME: 7:30pm onwards

PLACE: A funky bar at Kings Cross aka Zachary's (this is still to be confirmed)

DRESS CODE: Smart casual (and sunnies for that hang over the next day.. joke!) This really is just an opportunity for me to see everyone again and catch up!

COSTS: No presents, just pay for yourself! Approx $20 pp, and that includes a HUGE cocktail (food) menu to keep your appetites going whilst you sip unique cocktails and drinks

Let me know if this date's unsuitable as I am still in my final stages of confirming details. Otherwise, keep in touch as I will be sending invites again sometime closer to the date =)

P.S Feel free to bring your partner.

Posted by Psycha @ 10:45 PM

just don't leave the house.

Posted by john @ 9:55 PM

If you had a motorbike you'd still probably be bitching only not as loud just because of the fact that other people in their cars are getting screwed even more.

Posted by butters @ 8:59 PM

haha James - I've known it for ages as you probably have, but haven't said it. Just the opening line is all you need.

If it wasn't for my concern of safety (yeah, even me..) I would already have my motorbike licence.

Posted by IONize @ 8:53 PM

Its amazing how one can know the author of a post just by the name at the bottom :p

On another note, does anyone know of a hairdresser (in Chinatown?) called Yuko? I called them then I asked if she had come back yet (from Japan) and they said no, they couldn't contact her. I told this to my parents and they said (paraphrase),

"Son, thats the oldest line in the book. Shes still around somewhere."

"How would you know these things?"

"Because we used it in our restaurant days."

Rarely do I have a haircut that I'm happy with. I always leave thinking, congratulations you've just delayed my hair by about 3 months. And hey presto, when the time comes, it looks like a piece of crap. Now I've actually had a good haircut I can say that a good haircut makes you feel good. Theres a sense of joy. Its so hard to explain. The benchmark test for a winning haircut is as follows: 3 months after, I can get out of bed, and leave the house without worrying about how my hair looks. Thats how good she was - well worth $40 I guarantee. Find her and bring her to me...alive. Shes no good to me dead.

Posted by butters @ 8:07 PM

It's amazing that one can know the author of a post just by its opening.

Posted by Giacomo @ 6:30 PM

Just had a very pleasant customer service experience. A person came upto the desk and asked how to fix his unimail problem. He was a bit edgy and pushy. It was full but he couldn't delete anything because it was too full (strange paradox).

Anyways, I eventually solved the problem with consult and he could delete emails. He then proceeded to ask if I could delete them right here and now. I could have complied (and normally I would have) but I didn't like his attitude. He was pushy and arrogant. As far as I was concerned, I solved his problem and my job was done. The computers here are used to solve problems, not for student's personal use. He was at leisure to delete those emails from any computer. Especially as we were right outside a whole bunch of common terminals.

He started to get agro after this and wouldn't have it. So he took the mouse and keyboard and said "Fine, I'll do it then, fucking wankers."

Mmm nice guy. I think he must have been irate from the 200 or so porn emails that bounced from his account in addition to the other 200 or so in his account right now. Or maybe he was pissed because he couldn't manage all those emails himself and he had to let someone from Disconnect (me) see it to fix it?

Posted by butters @ 5:34 PM

Totallly with marc on this one. Michitaro is second rate, third rate really. And it's no cheaper. I too vote for Musashi Marc II.

Posted by Giacomo @ 12:15 PM

If thats the case then do try booking Musashi. Michitaro is mediocre.

Posted by butters @ 12:22 AM

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

29/04/2006

6:30pm

MichitaroCapitol SquareLevel 1, 730-742 George StHaymarket NSW 2000

Posted by tucoti @ 10:34 PM

Goddam! That's smart parking! Although I have seen something similiar in a movie. Guy fishtailed out and leave. I might try that when I am going to sell my car. Lolz.

Posted by Hoey the Fish @ 6:00 PM

The problem is that it's second hand. Even if its 'as new'.

Ur likely to get around $800 realistically.

Case? Who needs a case!

Posted by Hash @ 11:04 AM

I've done a full price check on MSY. The current going market is $950 for the lot including DVDROM and HDD (brand new though). I paid ~$940 for it without the HDD or the DVDROM.

Add the cost of the HDD, DVDROM and "labour costs" in building the machine. $1000 is optimistic which is why those magical 3 letters after it make the difference. Realistically I am aiming to sell it for ~950 anyway so that would be like getting construction, HDD and DVDROM for the cost of 4 month depreciation and price cuts.

Your quote also neglected to mention the case. Or should I charge them $900 and attach everything to the mobo unsupported. Its brand new and not exactly scrap metal you get from 486 boxes. The DVDROM is not exactly new, but to its favour it has been flashed with the latest firmware and RPC-0 so foreign students may find it of some use with added benefit of reading burnt DVDs so theres no distinguishable difference between it and a new one. Add the cost of those to $900 and thats pretty much what I expect. In fact because of this discrepancy, it it could arguably be cheaper than your upper-bound limit of $900.

It depends if you view those two items being worth $50 added together, which invariably I would think is a bargain seeing as I paid $65 for the case itself. I don't think cases depreciate as much as other computer parts, say graphics cards.

Mmm, is that how your uncle treats his Honda Civic? ;)

Yi, if you want to get rid of your Chinese made in China phone then may I suggest looking at the Sony Ericsson W300i? Not sure what the cost will be but its a mid-market phone from Sony's Walkman mobile line if you are interested in portable audio. If the cost of a W800i (Scott's one) is currently $400 now then you may be looking at say $200-250 which is still quite expensive. If its less than $200 then I would get it if I needed a phone. Yes, its a clamshell. If you are getting it for portable music factor then double check the external memory input. I'm not sure if the review I read on iMobile meant Memory Stick Duo or whether a Micro Memory Stick exists.

Marc - how awesome is Nerds FC?I actually went to watch it with the team the first friday night it premiered (a few of them are CSE revue people) at the Royal Hotel near USyd; it's pretty funny when you know these guys (at the least by face) and they're all of a sudden on TV. Pretty funnnnny stuff though, the guy getting hit in the balls

Well, about WinXP - the whole reason that I might even consider a Mac as even competitve now would be coz u can natively run a Windows OS on it.

Before that - they were a waste, like Rims on my death-trap of a car. Why pimp out something that is not competitive in the first place?

If we use the 'general user' argument u seem to be plying for, then yes u would have to pay for Win XP.

by bottlenecks i mean u can choose what components ur comp will have - i.e RAM, HDD etc. This is at the product purchase step. for instance if u buy certain notebooks u get 533/800/1066 Mhz CPU FSB coupled with DDR400 RAM, then u get a bottleneck right off the bat.

The thing about Mac's for general population is that u get them if u r ultra-n00b or somewhat-techno-savvy. There is no way for a ultra-n00b to migrate to fairly-competant using a Mac, the nitty-gritty is just not as available. Whereas with Windows u can get a decent learning curve due to the restrictions on complete dumb-arse behaviour.

Final Comment :: There is ONE and ONLY ONE aspect that I will say that Mac's are actually Pro. If u have ne iBook or powerbook - u can hook up its Firewire drive to a firewire port in another computer and use ur notebook as a completely transparent portable hard-drive. that is 1337. But that ALONE.

Posted by Hash @ 2:07 AM

Just downloaded Nerds FC off BT and watching it a bit. The gamer is so funny because while the rest have knowledge that may be useful for society, the gamer's is pointless. You see all these people talking about their passions in math, exploration, biology, then some dude talking about WoW.

The gam3r is my favourite man. When I use gaming analogies its in fag value. When this guy uses it, he's serious:

You don't realise how quickly people can turn around you, and over you and under you while they have a ball around their feet and your like, omg, I like totally don't have the boots of awesome and agility to like do this.

Posted by butters @ 12:48 AM

Monday, April 24, 2006

Great! Sounds like a CFN night is in the making.

Posted by Psycha @ 11:58 PM

OMG! That reminds me of my photos I left at Gloria Jeans...I gotta get them back 2morrow.

I think Macs and PCs are all good. To some, beauty is more important, whilst functionality will be more important to others. Personally, I would prefer functionality and long-term running costs. For me, the price to value ratio should be the most important factor. If i will dish out 3g for a comp, I will rather have the comp with the best functions and will last longer into the future. Once we've paid, I would prefer to get the most out of my investment. Also, investing in such an expensive asset, we need to look at the running costs and maintenance costs, such as software, peripherals, and all that. If Macs are better in those regards, I am all for it and vice versa.

I can't say for the designs of the softwares, but since i've been using PCs for most of my life, I personally don't really care about how pretty it looks and all that. I find Macs's GUI pretty cumbersome (and I have used Macs while I was still going to Trinity). It's just a matter of personal taste.

Personally, looking sleek is secondary when it comes to performance. I mean, look at the Enzo...I have to admit it doesn't look as sleek and cool as the SLR, (yes John, no typos there =p), but in terms of performance, it eats the SLR for breakfast. (And I would rather own the Enzo, but that's besides the point.)

In conclusion, I really don't think it's important what comps you got. As long as we can still play Star together at Benny's and have no compatibility issues, then everyone will be indifferent!

Posted by Hoey the Fish @ 11:19 PM

Okay. I was in process of preparing a lengthy response to this argument, but at the same time trying to download Nerds FC. When Azureus asked me where to save, I got the blue screen of death. This is happening to someone whos meticulous about how, what and where data can be stored and regularly purging my system of filth.

If that wasn't a sign telling me to buy the notebook, I dunno what is XD

Screw the response. Put so much effort into it too. Maybe next time. Will just say ROFL to the following:

Am to understand that you actually purchased Windows XP?Well James, ghosting requires less time to figure than how to right click using a single button Mac Mouse.

I did think of an idea of creating a company dealing only with PC cleaning. Like a PC maid detoxing your computer. There would be a market for such a thing with so many n00bs out there.

Posted by butters @ 9:10 PM

Right-clicking on a Mac mouse. Hilarious.

Too many arguments over too many issues. I want to address them all, but if I do I will only contribute to a complete mediocre degeneration of this blog. So here are only a few:

There are no "high-powered" med/law people in our group (yet). Is that to say our group represents a complete cross-section of our society? Because that was the context I was speaking in, not just our group.

Though funny that. I was thinking if I pursue a career in law, I will have less/little time to carry out my computing duty in eliminating b0ttl3neXoRz.

I also thought of a wonderful idea on the job today. There would be a great demand for a PC maid service - someone who cleans up all the shit on your computer and makes it running smooth and efficient. This was inspired by possibly the worst/slowest XP running laptop I have ever seen. It had a medley of crap in it and I was almost pitying the owner's ignorance, which certainly was not bliss by any means.

I don't think its unsound to correlate sleek and pretty with cost-effective. You just have to exercise a very little amount of imagination. Isn't that what HCI is about? Developing better ways to interact with the computer? If you develop better ways to interact, that can lead to time-saving which spills over to cost/money saving.

Am to understand that you actually purchased Windows XP?

I can read that 2 ways: either as a personal comment against Hash, or as a comment reflecting your sentiments of WinXP. If the former: ROFL thats so below the belt but not unexpected from your point of view James.

I do see owning a MacBook as an opportunity to learn about a new OS, even if it only has a 4% marketshare. Among the younger generation, its growing immensely in popularity and I just say this from doing wireless installations. It comes nowhere near PC numbers, but there are definately more people using Mac than I actually thought to begin with. Its not like I need it, but if I want to learn about it, I need some hands-on experience. I have the same thoughts about Routers and Wireless ie I don't particularly need/want one (why complicate things?), but everyone else has one so it would be useful/wise to learn more about it.

A similarly spec'ed Dell for $2,500? Link me - not that I want to purchase, I just want for information sake.

Posted by butters @ 9:01 PM

"Well James, ghosting requires less time to figure than how to right click using a single button Mac Mouse."

Never mind that dual button mouses have worked with macs since the dawn of time and Apple's own dual button mouse has been sold since last August.

"What John said is tru, u only get spyware/adware/sofware infection if u go to the wrong places on the net. Getting rid of them has never required a reformat tho."

You get them through emails. You get them through IE exploits. And if you get the bad ones, it is a reformat.

"that's 2800 + 200 for a Mac with a windows OS. If ur just going to stick to Mac OSX, then u can say goodbye to 90% of the available software market."

Am to understand that you actually purchased Windows XP?

"I can guarantee that the time it takes for u to learn/appreciate/customize ne Mac GUI that u get will be the same as the time it takes for u make a nice modular Litestep set-up."

It's not how it 'looks'. It's about how it works. People seem to think that the OS X is just 'sleek'. That it's just a pretty, nice looking, pleasant OS. If that was it, then it would be pretty close to worthless. It's how it works. Spotlight, dashboard, expose. These things make workflow so much efficient. All Litestep does it change the appearance. It doesn't make the OS more 'intelligent'.

Posted by Giacomo @ 6:36 PM

Well James, ghosting requires less time to figure than how to right click using a single button Mac Mouse.

What John said is tru, u only get spyware/adware/sofware infection if u go to the wrong places on the net. Getting rid of them has never required a reformat tho.

that's 2800 + 200 for a Mac with a windows OS. If ur just going to stick to Mac OSX, then u can say goodbye to 90% of the available software market.

"high-powered lawyer or specialist doctor." - unless I am xtremely mistaken there are none of these in our groups. We are in a majority IT/Business ppl that are steeped in comp lore. We have a higher lvl of computer hardware/software competancy than most individuals. We have the option to customize and streamline our comps. The FREEDOM to ensure that we have the minimal possible bottlenecks in a system.

John Doe Office Worker can not be expected to know about system bottlenecks and how to fix em - true.James Wang/Marc Pang/Yi Huang IT Prof can be expected to have gleaned some lvl of hardware/software tweaking ability and understanding of system stability and maximum performance.

I can guarantee that the time it takes for u to learn/appreciate/customize ne Mac GUI that u get will be the same as the time it takes for u make a nice modular Litestep set-up.

Once u have a product, it is in ur nature to attempt to get the most of it - there is nothing u can do about it, ur human.

These arguments are directed at the ppl in the blog, not society in general. So plz keep it in context pplz.

Posted by Hash @ 6:04 PM

i agree that some macs are things of beauty, and aesthetics are important to some people, but it is a purely subjective measure.

saying they're sleek and pretty is one thing, but saying buying macs are cost effective is a separate and factual question which, in my opinion, is unsound.

Posted by john @ 5:03 PM

marc,Actually I'm completely with you and joyce on the graduation matter. I think I'm way more bleak actually. I think the whole thing is a sham, the people who get excited by it are a bunch of no gooders and given how pathetic the UNSW education is, I find it ever the more worthless. My id/NT core is screaming: I don't want to wear that silly hat and join a bunch of z00ches who are dytzyfying over a piece of paper and taking pictures with their pocket digicam on a tripod with a teddy bear and a cheap bunch of flowers.

Try that for bleakness. :D

and john,Macbook Pro is $2800 after student discount. And saying that aesthetic is not important is indefensible. Would you buy a uglified Mazda for 30% cheaper?

Posted by Giacomo @ 4:53 PM

prettiness or super-ego-effect apart, it's hard to see the cost efficiency argument when a macbook starts at $3,199 while you can get a similarly spec'ed dell for less than $2,500. also, as marc mentioned, using a mac needs learning; who wants to spend the time to learn a niche os that has less than 4% market share?

i've never had to reformat my windows machine due to spyware/adware/virii. do stupid things on any os/browser and you'll get stupid outcomes.

don't confound the time-cost efficiency argument with a pretty gui.

Posted by john @ 2:06 PM

Hey you didn't post up that cool pic of you that I took. The one where you had your hand brushing over your forehead.

Actually I'm interested in Macs because it seems a lot of people have them and it would be useful to learn about it for future reference. It is good fortune that it has a reputedly fantastic GUI.

But yes, time is expensive. Think about it in terms of a high-powered lawyer or specialist doctor. Do they want to customize and m0d their own b0><0rZ? Probably not. Not that they don't want to learn new things but because they have no time. The time it takes to learn something new could amount to several hours. Several hours multiplied by a 3 figure hourly rate can amount to more than the equipment itself. Being AsianPro doesn't just mean saving money. It means getting maximum money whether it be saving hard, working hard or playing hard.

Given a risk analysis, a reasonable person would assess that overclocking is not worth it. You void the warranty, greatly increase the risk of failure or something bad happening all for a minor increase in performance. I don't even think its worth it especially after frying my old CPU I now realise how risky it can be if you don't follow procedures by the book/manual. You may be better off just selling your current unit on ebay and buying the newer model.

Joyce: thats exactly how I envision my graduation. I have a partner in BWV, in your face James!

How hard can it be? Last I installed firefox I just untar'ed it and ran the executable. RTFM to find out how to untar the file. 'man tar'

Posted by butters @ 1:19 PM

haha sorry to burst anyone's bubble (or my own), but I think I spent well more than 2 hours trying to get firefox to work...and it's still not working.:)

It's more like...if you know how to do it, and how to troubleshoot problems you encounter (like unzipping the file in the first place, when you're following every google step properly and it still doesn't work), then it's very quick (like Yi knows).

Well, will get it someday, after more important thesis-related things. :D

Posted by IONize @ 12:33 PM

Hello. Havent checked blog for awhile actually looks like ya had great fun n the food at Musashi looks great. not much's been happening with me lately except for the graduation. not sure about others but I couldnt feel any difference after the ceremony, its just a process of dressing up like a bat, walking onto the stage, smiling at the academics (was funny to see one person waved desperately to the crowds), getting a piece of paper, shaking hands with the Chancellor who you'd never seen in your entire 4yrs of uni life, and then off stage. But anyhow it is once in a life-time thingy (memorable) anyways, do hope to catch up soon. cya.

Posted by joycey @ 11:11 AM

Hash,It is hard to contest that building a linux 'white box' is cheaper and more flexible. I don't think anyone contests that. It's more a case that at some point, that 'constant' amount of price efficiency you gain through DIY just doesn't make sense anymore.

Yi had a really nice Litestep thing going. So did I. Yi overclocked his Athlon with a 'goldfinger' device back in high school. I overclocked my Voodoo 3. But we don't do that anymore. It's 'cheap kicks' for a time when we really needed maximum price/performance. But it just doesn't make sense anymore.

Right now computers are cheap and time is expensive. It's more efficient to use systems which require minimal effort and setup and allow you to work efficiently. Windows XP can't do that. Virus, adware, ugly GUI. And what kind of a sick solution/workaround is ghosting your HDD? Who has the time to learn all inwards of Ghost? Or rather, why should one be coerced to learn a niche program to merely combat a mediocre operating system?

And I don't even want to discuss Linux. Jono spent two hours just to get a browser to work.

So the reason why people from Buckland to Yi and Marc to Me are interested in Apple, despite of our ability to tame Windows XP or setup Linux is because it isn't worth our time. It's the same reason why no big company uses a bunch of whiteboxes from the local "COMPUTER" shop.

A new fad: Chilling at Gloria Jeans

Wow, sounds like you guys had fun! And Marc, well done on the installation...who knows, you might be able to open up your own shop later! Anyways, alcohol is always fun when you drink it, even when you are pissed and your friends tell you to drink "one more". It's just the aftermath of it all MIGHT make you think "maybe i should stop" (that's if you can still think).

Posted by Hoey the Fish @ 2:36 AM

Since when did Yi support buying Dell? He only said that he tore one apart.

FYI, people still do steal radios. How do you think I got this suit? - Tyrone Biggums

Posted by butters @ 2:30 AM

Nice work on the radio replacement Marc, it's good to know things like that.

Glad you guys had a good rest of Sat night. I learnt one thing that night - over-drinking is no fun, throwing up is no fun, wine glasses, when full, store a lot of drink. Bloody Josh.

as for windows config - maybe u heard of ghost?as for linux config - granted its a bitch, but u will need to recompile ne piece of software that u used on another linux machine b4 u can use it on a mac ...

and the library additions etc. - sure they r easier in mac osx, but if u set up ur linux config correctly, they r just as easy, but i lost all respect for ur capabilities when u said "buy a dell desktop" instead of building ur own.Interesting note - linux costs jack vs the +200 for osx.

good work marc. Benny, u finally have ur partner in crime for radio jacking.

Posted by Hash @ 1:44 AM

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Friends that you hate (Wang 2006)My "Opaque World View" ears are burning XD

I have just finished installing the car radio myself and it is so satisfying to say: up yours JB Hifi - even a noob like I can do it. Pix will ensue once my cousin returns my camera.

The "new-age" design looks a bit weird when you think of an old Benz but because the dash is all pure-black, the interior looks almost harmonious. Especially when the red warning lights on the dash are on in sync with the radio :)

Cheers for the link Yi. Info no matter how large/small is always useful.

Funny thing is when I was installing the radio I knew nothing about auto-electrics. I spent 1/2-1 hour trying to get it out using homemade tools. I was on the right track only I wasn't using enough force to push it out, ironically. And you laughed at me tugging on it john :p

After I miraculously figured how to take the unit out, I started painstakingly observing wirings so I didn't get anything wrong. Its really not that much more complicated than setting up your mobo. You just need to read instructions. The real bitch of it all is inserting and removing the units themselves. That takes ages to figure out sometimes.

Anyways I reconnected everything and the engine wasn't igniting on even after I connected the negative lead on the battery pack back. That was one of the scariest things I've been put through. Imagining my parents coming back to find I've just screwed the car after they dumped 2-3k into it not more than a month ago. I was just sitting in the car thinking: don't panic - parents will get home and then you get to go to heaven.

Turns out I just needed to plug in some distinct antenna power cord to the back of the unit.

But I learnt a pretty good deal about car radio installations just from reading irrelevant information.

Posted by butters @ 7:29 PM

Viet cons? Vietnamese convicts?

or VietCong?

I went home and watched Gladiator reminding me of the wonderful Zimmer cd James burnt me.

Glad that you guys had heaps of fun last night.

Funny thing was I had the strangest Gladiator dream the next day, extremely lucid but I have no recollection of what happened now.

Posted by Katt @ 6:29 PM

Hash, I know it's hard to believe.. But there are people out there that is perfectly happy with not fixing their own hardware issues (desktop or laptop), not overclocking their computers, not upgrading their own machines..

Benny and I had a chat with Buckland and he was interested in buying a Mac for OS X. His main reason was OS X's ease of use. He was sick and tired of tweaking Linux/Windows to get things to his liking.

I think I am also moving in the same direction. I am sick of installing LiteStep and customizing my computer (as John noticed ages ago, that my background for winxp is still the default picture). I am tired of having to reinstall Windows every now and then (just did one for mum's win2k) though with win2k/xp it's a lot better now. I am fed up of having to RTFM to massage the latest Linux application to install.

Also, how much of a laptop can you upgrade yourself anyway? It seems from that link above, that you can dismantle a MacBook Pro as much as any laptop. I've had the experience of disemboweling a Dell Inspiron 600m and it's pretty simple if you have the dexterity and the guts to do it. The issue on warranty is also not valid. Since when have name brand computer manufacturers allowed you to upgrade your own computer without voiding the warranty? It's only the whiteboxes that you build yourself. So then we are really coming back to the tweakers. And how much of an overclock can you achieve from a laptop motherboard anyway?

I say if you want a nice looking laptop and the MacBook Pro has the specs and the price to suit, then go for it. Though I've heard of heating issues with them.. That they get a little hot, unfortunately just like my Fujitsu. :(

The untapped market of Myer-Briggs workshops for inferior function development (Wang 2006)

New words learned:facileadjective 1 (esp. of a theory or argument) appearing neat and comprehensive only by ignoring the true complexities of an issue; superficial.• (of a person) having a superficial or simplistic knowledge or approach : a man of facile and shallow intellect.

conduciveadjective 1 making a certain situation or outcome likely or possible : the harsh lights and cameras were hardly conducive to a relaxed atmosphere.

Posted by Giacomo @ 5:54 PM

And it seems of all the people that were brainwashed by Apple, the 'designers' of your [hash's] laptop is among the first. For of all the possible designs they could have chosen, they used the classic Apple translucent white stripes for your laptop lid.

What were you saying again? Something about us being 'disgusting' when we see something 'white/black/silver'? Are you not guilty of either hypocrisy or sheer weakness for going 'ZOMG' over the mere sight of an Apple copycat PC notebook?

And no, don't give us some jibberish about having purchased it for the 'hardware'. =D

Posted by Giacomo @ 5:39 PM

I understand fully what you are saying Hash.

a) The fact of the matter is if I had a laptop, I wouldn't want to upgrade it myself in the first place, PC or Mac. Maybe I'm just ignorant, but it seems to me that a box is easier to upgrade than a laptop and therefore less riskier. Plus on a 1:1 ratio of specs, a box is worth significantly less too which increases the risk factor for laptops.

b) Like I mentioned previously, have you ever seen a company plug their product in a completely unbias manner? Reading from Intel/AMD's official site is very much different than reading Tom's Hardware or Anandtech. But I do admit that Apple does blow their own horn pretty loud.

c) I wouldn't contemplate overclocking unless 1) the warranty has expired; and 2) I was not getting enough out of my system and was looking to upgrade soon (in which case, the warranty will most certainly have expired)

d) "wanna upgrade? tough shit you'll void your warranty". Don't big companies, like Dell, all do that anyway? I'm not sure myself. Does HP, IBM or Toshiba, for example, invalidate warranty as soon as you crack open the laptop?

Posted by butters @ 12:14 PM

I do not know how and I do not know when, but Apple has somehow brainwashed everyone here.

2) Upgrade - [storeperson A] :: hey, this guy wants to upgrade all by himself. - [storeperson B] :: lol, apple's are for hapless techno-n00bs that can only use software. Seef, we'd touch the inside of our comps.

More criticism will be coming soon. In case u do not notice, my position is DO NOT BUY AN APPLE COMPUTER product.

Posted by Hash @ 7:41 AM

I'm getting both refunded. By tomorrow hopefully it won't matter.

I'm anticipating they may argue that they can't refund it because the appointment was missed but that would be weak at best.

Posted by butters @ 1:32 AM

Saturday, April 22, 2006

the refund that you mentioned, what was it for? the actual unit, or the installation of the unit?

if it's the installation then i don't see why you would need to talk to anyone else but jb hifi.

Posted by john @ 9:24 PM

DAMN marc...that really sucks! You know, you should've said something about the guy that got in front of you and loudly say, "Hey mate, i am next, there's a queue so join it!" In Australia, customer service is a thing of the future. I really doubt the salepersons were trained sometimes. You get one or two nice ones, out of a thousand...and MSY bastards are.....

Posted by Hoey the Fish @ 5:43 PM

Terrible, terrible, terrible experience with JB Hifi. Perhaps on par with MSY maybe, Hash? Benny, I'm going to follow your advice: I'm going to refund the unit and get a 3.5mm tape adapter and file a hole on the side of the detachable face. Pro. More money for MacBook

The facts

After writing that huge post and reading up more on MacBook and bits of pieces of hardware in it, I slept at 3am. Kicked myself awake at 8:40am via alarm got dressed misc. Had to fill up car petrol. Driving the whole time worried that I'll lose my appointment and have to wait for ages or worse reschedule. Arrived at centre at 9:05am - couldn't find the fitting bay in the carpark so I had to park then go down to JB store front inside the centre and ask. Got the right details and got there at 9:30am and they told me they had 5 cars waiting already and that they couldn't fit me in. Thank you Murphy.

Anyways, got really pissed off now. Went back to the store and told them I had to reschedule. Storeperson Lori was accomodating and tried his best to help out offering solutions and empathy, but none viable for today eg come here at 1:30pm and leave the car for the next 3 hours. Mmm, I deliberately chose 9am so it wouldn't cut into my day...

He suggested they do a mobile fitting by coming to my place without adding a service call. So I said if they could do that then yea, but if not: refund. Unfortunately he wasn't so helpful when I asked about refunds. He shut like a clam. He told me I had to contact the person who sold me the unit: Benny (lol)

So now I have a unit that hasn't been installed and I'm waiting for a call from the fitters today or I have to call Benny tomorrow to see how it all goes.

The issues

JB Hifi's Fitting Schedule/Appointment Policy

JB Hifi's Staff Practical Knowledge-base

Pissed-offed-ness

They didn't mention that an appointment really means: first come first serve. They took on 5 cars for a 9am appointment each requiring, as I quote, 1-2hrs avg (there were vehicles there already with complicated procedures requiring more than that). So that becomes potentially 5-10 hours to fix your car even if you booked at 9am for a 1-2hr procedure. Practical? Their approach is very ad hoc and when you do that, someone loses out: thats not the idea of appointments.

The store people didn't know where the fitting bay was. If the guy in charge of booking installations only has a rough idea of where they do it, then how the hell is a customer supposed to know? This created roughly a 20 minute delay because I had to wait for staff to assist me*. Heres the thing: the first 2 people I talked to (ie the guy who sold me the unit and the girl who phoned me to confirm the booking) did not know where it was. But strangely enough when I got there and was late already the staff I met knew exactly where it was and drew me a nice diagram too. Turns out I knew where it was afterall, but wasn't given precise directions to begin with. Then coming back to the store storeperson Lori also knew where it was and was explaining how to get there until I told him I had already gone there. Strange how people only know after I had been screwed.

Lack of sleep has definately affected my temperament but no doubt I would still be mega-pissed if I were fully refreshed.

Concessions

My fault for sleeping late and my fault for arriving late for the appointment. If I didn't know where it was I should have allowed for more time. If I knew thats the way they operated I would of course have come in before 9am even. Despite that I am far from confident that my car would have been done in 1-2hrs if I had dropped it off at 9:05am ceteris paribus.

I should have made sure where it was in the beginning, even if the staff were ignorant of its location. Don't ask me how, maybe I should have asked another staff member (although technically they should have asked someone else)

Aftermath

If it comes to refund which will most likely be and they don't refund my installation cost fully I will be a very very angry man. I'll show them just how bleak I can be as I put the kettle on. All in all, a very dissatisfying experience. Perhaps I should have gotten it at Strathfield. Its too late to get them to install it because I've already paid an installation cost at JB.

*Excellent note for customer service: On a sidenote a faggot cut in. He briefly glanced at me and was deciding whether to ask me if I was next but thought "why bother?" and went ahead anyway. This augmented frustration 2 fold. If your working in a customer service position take notice of the line and if someone is out of order justify the person getting screwed by saying "I think he was next."

Conclusion

Some of the staff are knowledgeable and helpful and the other half are just helpful.

If you're going to get a car radio installed, maybe you should try another place first because it may not be worth going through this ad hoc system and getting screwed. If I wanted to continue with installation the earliest would be Wednesday but I'm working then so Thursday at minimum.

If I could do it myself, which I could if I could just remove that damn existing unit, I would do it myself. The wiring is all colour coded and it just requires being put it respective slots not unlike configuring the mobo: RTFM

The work of the Xel'Naga is complete. The Protoss and Zerg are now one. We shall call it: The MacBook and it shall be...perfect.

Posted by butters @ 11:16 AM

Butters,Oh dear mother of god. I didn't realise windows has been made to run natively on the mac! I thought those guys came to you in emulation. I just googled and found about about the $13000 prize and the beta release of boot camp. I don't know how I missed this news.

But this is exciting indeed, and for once, I do feel somewhat left behind with my iMac G5. It's a god lovely machine. Slow, paced out, but lovely.

And this is not Apple bending to the will of Microsoft or Intel. In fact, this is quite terrible for Microsoft; it's allowing Apple to lure Windows users in a way they never could before. It's good for Intel since Apple's success will mean purchasing more Intel chips.

If this really catches on, then the real loser are PC vendors; Dell, Sony, ASUS etc. Let's face it. They make shite. Only Apple actually gives a damn about their computers. Even vaios are just glorified PCs in disguise.

And please, all, do consider an iMac. They are cheaper and the screen is just bootiful.

PS. Car trip home was wonderfully nostalgic. We got lost and ended up at Breakfast Bay. "Let's have breakfast at Breakfast Bay!" -Charlie.

Posted by Giacomo @ 4:15 AM

Heh still want one if I can get the student discount in time. I'll check with the phasing out time, but if it doesn't conclude soon, then I may just take your advice.

I will refrain from hyperlinking to the official site for any goods in future. My aim was not to promote so much its cutting edge performance but rather the event of OSes merging processors making the dual boot possible. Undoubtedly, Hash, their site can't be trusted as a sole source of information - they are trying to promote their own product by any means necessary (MacBook: now 4x cooler than PowerBook). I have been looking for 3rd party reviews but I only get wishy washy garbage that seem only to restate features contained within. Perhaps a testiment to a large majority of Mac owners (potentially including me)? XD

It's not like I'm looking for great depth, but it would be nice to see a thorough report on it.

I told my colleague who just recently bought a PowerBook (regretting the fact that MacBook just came out) that it was gonna be an antique/vintage line. Assuming Mac will stop releasing their current line of processor in favour of little endian. Now I reflect on it, I don't think that will be the last of that line yet...

Anyways, Intel and Microsoft got what they wanted - a bending of the will of Macintosh. Now they've started complying, will they/can they stop?

With a student discount for the lower of 2 models, it comes to $2,814 which is still very much competitive against other PC notebooks with similar specifications (eg same RAM, CPU, GFX). Of course they wouldn't have XP bundled, but I already have it.

As we were talking about Benny, looking purely at specifications that price is far from expensive when compared to other straight up PC notebooks. Darren has similar laptop specifications except his has 1GB of DDR2 RAM while the mac only has 512 (correct me if I'm wrong Darren) and he got his for a similar price. I invite you to find a PC notebook with similar specs "doing the same job" that sells for as significantly cheap, not even for $500-1,000 as you boldly claimed but for around $300 cheaper. Not on eBay though...the slightly cheaper prices come with an inherent risk attached (one I'm not prepared to take with such a large sum as you were - you did get a sweet deal :p) and not no-namer brands. As you will see, the student discount does make quite a bit of difference. You could also factor in Mac's popular aesthetic appeal - both physical and OS as James mentioned but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Performance wise I still have yet to read some decent reviews. Will get back to later but it is something to get excited about heh.

I'll make some calls but if student discount stays then I'm more than happy to see what happens. My only beef is that it has no TV-out. You cannot have a laptop without TV-out nowadays. Disgraceful.

The bus ride home was awesome, it was like being chaufferred directly back home. 3 people on at Town Hall and another 2 at Boronia Park. It must have stopped no more than 3 times before reaching home :D

Posted by butters @ 1:45 AM

Friday, April 21, 2006

It is ludicrous indeed. The only reason they are posting '4x faster' is because the previous PowerBooks never got G5 processors, so they were stuck with *ancient* G4 1.6GHz ish processors. We're talking just better than classic mac mini performance here.

And the new Intel based macs are not consistenly faster than the G5 ones of yesteryear. Most programs are compiled for the classic PowerPC core and they run through an emulation layer to work on Intel. Those are almost always slower. Only the apps that are natively compiled for Intel run faster.

And all else aside, Apple OSes are designed to be *slow*. As in, the response and workflow is more paced out than the Windows equivalent. So it's all kind of ironic.

they are no faster than ur standard laptops - their '4x faster' claim is compared to the old power pc processors which didn't jump 2 ghz and were not dual core. Also the power pc arch was ancient compared to the core duo and was a completely different type of processor which can not be compared objectively to any x86 or amd64 architecture.

2 people came in consecutively to setup wireless and I was shocked to see they had WinXP running on them. I was completely wtF?! On the face it appears Mac has abandoned their old line of "big endian" processors in favour of intel....

I'm not going on my end-of-year overseas trip anymore.

Posted by butters @ 1:37 PM

haha James.

James - this might interest you, though you need some certification. Anyway just FYI.

Apple Technical TrainerKey Objectives

o To provide a professional and consistent level of Apple technical product training to Apple’s specifications.o Be willing to travel interstate given adequate notice.o Liaise with Apple Technical Support staff regarding course content, improvements in course delivery and scheduling.o Provide relevant feedback on training and other issues to Apple Account Manager.

Minimum skill set

o Previous training experience required.o Thorough understanding of Mac OS X, Client and Server Operating Systems essential.o Good knowledge of Apple hardware and application software.o Good troubleshooting ability.o Previous Unix experience preferable.o Ability to communicate effectively both oral and written.o Demonstrated ability to lead and supervise groups of up to 16 students.o Ability to work independently with a minimum of supervision.

I cannot believe my thesis supervisor replied my email at midnight just now. I sent him the email half an hour ago.

Gosh Yi I wish I had your linux help right now, trying to compile the FDS program to work on Mech Eng's 64-bit cluster.

*runs away*

Posted by IONize @ 12:17 AM

How about a winter morning Pyrmont excursion?

Posted by Giacomo @ 12:04 AM

Gee this looks pretty tempting for cse people, esp the travel bit.

"We require a number of software engineers to work on our leading edge radio communications software development. All our software is developed using high standards for embedded application and robust network components.

Essential:Will be in their final year of a Software or Electrical or Communication Engineering or Computer Science degree with strong results in their software and communication subjects.

Desirable:Ability to travel. Nearly all our customers are overseas and we have offices in London, Barcelona and Tokyo and encourage staff rotation between sites.

Job Location: Australian Technology Park, Eveleigh

Discipline/s: Software development, communications

See our web site http://www.etherstack.com

Contact Scott Stratford at scott.stratford@etherstack.com "

Posted by IONize @ 12:04 AM

Thursday, April 20, 2006

sorry have a farewell dinner tomorrow for some friends going around the world for 1-2 yearsnext time perhaps. :)

Wow John and linda, out of the skunkworks! You guys haven't posted in months! Or something.:)

Tennis courts are booked for this saturday, 1-3pm at UNSW.

[edit: $13 per hour per court]

We're still meeting at 11am though, for soccer or anything else. Try to be on time. We'll be on the village green for soccer (right next to the courts) or on the physics lawn just next to the village green. Seeya then

Posted by IONize @ 11:07 PM

Turns out I need some kinda primitive device to unlock it.

If brains don't work, use brute force.

Nah I just gave up in the end. I didn't want to break anything or ruin my chances of actually being able to change it by destroying the bay completely lol

Posted by butters @ 9:04 PM

lol did you seriously expect "furious tugging" to work?

the thieves probably wouldn't care too much about scratched panels.

Posted by john @ 8:42 PM

I'd show you... but then I'd have to dispose of you...

Posted by Psycha @ 8:13 PM

I'm trying to remove my old car radio to install a new one and its taking me ages. Had to do a google search to figure out how my radio was bolted in as furious tugging wasn't doing the trick.

How do radio thieves do it so quick? Respect.

Posted by butters @ 2:16 PM

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Well it is highly likely that i will be unable to attend ne non-magical gatherings this weekend. So if u guys organise a place closer to wherever else is convenient for u guys then plz go ahead. However, West Ryde Maxim St is available - call 9809 3233 and ask about hiring the courts

Posted by Hash @ 5:54 PM

hey ppls,

when and where are we going to play tennis/soccer this week? Can we just organise a set time for the rest of the year/semester and wiki that? If people are gonna turn up, then just turn up? Saves Hash the trouble from posting details every week. Also saves me the trouble from asking. =D

Posted by Hoey the Fish @ 4:50 PM

Monday, April 17, 2006

yup will pass that on

Posted by IONize @ 12:50 AM

Sunday, April 16, 2006

haha, orsome soccer + tennis.

Thanks guys for rocking up and sorry for injuries that I may have [completely inadvertantly] caused.

Thanks for the heads up Eric, and retrieval of bat+balls next week would be much appreciated.

And Jono, plz thank Max in teaching me basic lvl soccer tactics that I lacked (i.e - do not run towards ur team mate, this is not footie, and PASS the ball)

so...is anything happening tomorrow? What time? Confirmations? Max is also interested in soccer

Posted by IONize @ 12:24 AM

Friday, April 14, 2006

LOL

that's such a good sales pitch dude..

Posted by tucoti @ 10:16 PM

I propose Meadowbank park as an appropriate venue for Tennis/Soccer. Here's why you should go ahead with this proposal :

1) The waterfront view - The scenic view of the vibrant waterfront includes two developments site and two bridges. Who could ask for more2) The fecund air - The mangroves recycle the nutrients being washed out by the rhodes development. The pugnant air of fecundity brings a sense of zest and vitality to all who breath it in.3) The green grass - This carefully matured turf has had both natures blessing and man's. It is perfect for optimal running and ball control.4) The facilities - Meadowbank park offers a wide range of facilities to suit ur recreational needs including (but not limited to) soccer grounds, cricket pitchs, tennis courts, netball courts and a basketball (or baseketball) hoop.

But don't just take my word for it. Come on down tomorrow and experience this taste of paradise for yourselves.

Remember, Meadowbank park is not just a park - its two.

Posted by Hash @ 10:13 PM

Well, if it works nething like MSDN Academic Alliance, (all CSE students get free MS Operatin Systems and dev tools) then u will be given a registration key for the software. Each person can only have 1 copy. If more than 1 person uses the registration key, then u get sued for copyright infringement.

Tennis and/or Soccer sounds good for me, as does a war against the machines!

Posted by Hash @ 6:26 PM

DANG marc...does that mean each UNSW student gets a hard copy of Norton? IF that is the case, then can't they just sell it? Or is it the downloaded version?

Posted by Hoey the Fish @ 6:07 PM

If I wasn't working on the damn DSM assignment for the 6th day straight, I would have went to the party.. ><

Anyway so what's happening tomorrow?

Posted by tucoti @ 4:17 PM

In case you didn't know, as UNSW students we're entitled to free Norton Antivirus among other software.

I'm just about to regrip my racquet in preparation of the next war against the machines

Posted by Katt @ 2:42 AM

Scott and I were witness to something of a rare opportunity. I told you guys to come...it was well worth it ;)

Posted by butters @ 2:35 AM

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Sure Charlie, Tetsuya's for everybody!

Like I said before, I wasn't aware that I was perceived to be BWV and I dunno if I'm a minority in my way of thinking or what, but I don't see why it should be mocked anymore than an optimist's is. But your last sentence holds weight. Imagine if everyone was an optimist o_0

As Lionel Hutz said: could you imagine a world without lawyers? *shudders*

Posted by butters @ 1:36 PM

I too can concur that Irene has told me to watch Dogville. And I plan too. I love Kidman's nose. It's an essential element of ZOMG.

But "damaging sterotype"? If by damaging you mean succinct, I suppose I'm guilty. And neither am I the only one who felt this undercurrent in the Pang psyche; just look at how Scott breathed with eternal relief after realising he wasn't the only one who felt that Marc's words to come out.. a little, well, bleak. =P

But dear marc, I never meant to attach you to a 'damaging' sterotype. You have a most unique countenance. Keep it up.

Posted by Giacomo @ 2:20 AM

The feminine nature is volatile, sometimes in demeanour, sometimes in looks. Charlize Theron was unrecognisable in North Country and Monster.

Irene recommended Dogville to me as well. I reckon she gave the same recommendation to everyone, and if by chance the person has an optimistic world view, her line would go something like "I think you're an awefullly mistaken optimist who should be more grounded in reality, go see Dogville". Gosh I hope she's not reading this.

Marc, I think to avoid deveoloping a 'Pang' of conscience, you should invite your dear friends aka us to Tetsuya's someday =).

Come on guys, lets get ourselves warmed up before the World Cup!

Posted by Bonobo @ 12:26 AM

I should be there

what's the theme?

Posted by IONize @ 12:21 AM

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Soccer is good.

Scarlett has a very dynamic face. I just did a google image search and no two different photos made her look the same...simply put if I put two different photos of her, I wouldn't be able to determine it is the same person. Some photos she looks ordinary, some she looks supermodelly and some make her quite attractive.

In terms of ZOMG I am indifferent to her. Although I think the beginning of Lost in Translation was intended to sear into the minds of all males. For some reason I confuse her with Charlize Theron...

Just received my first feedback on BWV...

irene says: have u seen dogville?onebutters says: nopesirene says: u should see it, it's probably something u'd find interesting and also would be in line with ur bleak world views.onebutters says: im confused, is that a compliment? ;) onebutters says: contrary to james' damaging stereotype, i don;t enjoy watching bleak/film noir moviesirene says: lol well i thoroughly enjoyed dogville... and insist u watch it too

Midsession party dress theme is bad taste. I'm very interested in going to see who wins. Who else is?

Posted by butters @ 11:20 PM

yeap I'd be down for soccer

edit: sorry, edited wrong post

Posted by IONize @ 10:58 PM

haha

yea rkn Scarlett Johansson

Posted by joycey @ 10:15 PM

If u have issues with Peak hour ... use the Train or Ferry!

Charlie has suggested soccer this saturday.Who is up for that and where would be a good location.I think Meadowbank park looks orsome this time of year >P.

In terms of ZOMG looks, I think Scarlett Johansson looks way better than ur Hennifer

(let the flames begin)

Posted by Hash @ 9:06 PM

Rockpool lost a hat coz their service was lacking, pretty good achievement considering that.

Charlie, you were stuck in Traffic too?! Me too, I left uni at 6:45, and expected to get home in 40 mins because of peakhour. BUT, it took me 1 1/2 hours to get home. I was pissed enough already to know that I forgot how to do one of the questions which subsequently meant that I couldn't answer the next. Hoping that I can just sleep and forget the whole issue, then peak hour traffic hits! The thing is, once I got past the Olympic Park exit, the traffic was great! grrrr

BTW Charlie, i actually followed you for a while, but I figured that I shouldn't distract you while driving, so I didn't "wave". Plus i was in a rush in getting to uni for my exam. Even though we got to uni at around the same time =þ.

And honking, well, i need to use it more. Sometimes, I just don't use it, even when it's necessary. Mostly because P-platers/old grannies taking over two lanes, or just change into your lane while you are in their blind spot or something. I figured that if i honk and scare them, it might cause a sudden panic attack. In most cases, they will either swerve, or slam the brakes. Not a good thing.

PS: Anyone intersted in going to the Equilibrium...or that ICE bar place. I've always wanted to go but either I was busy, or just couldn't be bothered. Lolz.

Posted by Hoey the Fish @ 3:53 AM

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

This evening's traffic nightmare was a result of a bus breakdown on the bridge. I got a lift home with a friend from work, and it took us 2 hours to get home instead of the usual hour. We left uni around 5:40, got to the intersection of the road the 891 takes to central and Elizabeth St around 6pm, and from there to the intersection of George St and Goulburn St, it took us 45 minutes.. 45 minutes to cover around 400 metres..

And to get to to the turnoff off Pyrmont Bridge Rd onto Anzac Bridge took another 15 minutes, so taking around an hour to cover about 3kms.. You could have walked faster than that.

I dont honk the horn of my car enough.. even if someone cuts me off in a dangerous way, I only react without thinking, and by the time i realise what has happened, its too late to honk the horn.. Its a sissy sounding horn anyway.. hardly threatening

Posted by Ice Kachang @ 10:14 PM

Haha, got a family do on Friday. Do we have enough helpers to do Iron Chef Chinese this week?

Posted by butters @ 9:26 PM

I share your pain Marc, took me over an hour to get home tonight while trying to hold off pissing my pants. Traffic at 8pm is certainly rare, perhaps due to the horde of people rushing into Olympic Park for the Easter Show.

And what's with quoting the widow from Wisteria Lane? As much as I agree with her, isn't that a tad desperate?

You sound like Freud there James =).

Anyone up for a drinking night this friday?

Posted by Bonobo @ 9:11 PM

I love peakhour. Being stuck there and having nothing to listen to (I like Newsradio, but AM radio is definately not a soother) except for people venting out their anger at other drivers by honking their horn.

Like I said before guys, don't honk your horn unless its absolutely vital or unless you're sure that no one else would get distracted because in peakhour it just ruins your night. And what for? Because you want to let someone know you're pissed off at them, while pissing off everyone else around you. It would be just as selfish to ruin other people's night as the person who cut you off or disobeyed road rules to get ahead.

Posted by butters @ 7:47 PM

Yes, because the age '18' has some magical, intrinsic significance to it. And forget that throughout human history, and even today, many younger females bare children and become mothers.

Our society is so liberal, so well developed, so tolerant, that if an adult would dare mention that a sixteen year old (let alone fourteen year old) is attractive, he or she is automatically a sick pervert.

Legalities. Puah.

Posted by Giacomo @ 4:15 PM

When it comes to love and infatuation, legalities seem distant and irrelevant... ;)

Posted by butters @ 3:16 AM

FRIG FRIED FROOBAR.

So the reality is quite the opposite -- she gets hits even for misspelling. How cool is that.

And gosh, there is some severe fanbase, especially for when she was young. I saw some pre-teen stuff in there. Argh.

Posted by Giacomo @ 1:35 AM

haha no I think they did; but i'm graduating in Nov so won't be around after that, and I mentioned this when we had our brief speeches, so it's good that it's handed over :)

Also James, I hope you spelt her name "jennifer connelly" in google. There's billions of results.:)

Mmmm Keira Knightly...MMmmm Natalie portman...pweeeeetty

Posted by IONize @ 1:00 AM

Marc,Though not my type, Zooey Deschanel (Trilian) is pleasant.

But Jennifer Connelly (spelling fixed), and notably her underlying facial structure, is the quintessence of ZOMG.

And how unpopular she seems to be. Type her name into Google and only a handful if images surface. Oh pity.

My other favourites of course are Portman and Knightly. They of course played as the real and substitute Princess Amidala in Star Wars. With make up, their mothers could not even tell them apart.

But of course I'm not really so much interested in any of these actresses as a particular beauty or expression they express. And all three only express this essential 'look' at brief moments during their films. That type of beauty, the 'ZOMG' as the literature calls it (Pang 2006) is what interests me.

Posted by Giacomo @ 12:35 AM

Monday, April 10, 2006

Aww, we still worship you even though they obviously didn't appreciate you.

But its good to spread the power, it stops you from going mad!

Posted by butters @ 11:59 PM

haha what a story Butters, I did kind of imagine she would be quite attractive when she stuck her hand up, before I read your next post about her actually being in the upper echelon. Must be telepathy.

Darren - no that's not him. :)Oleg is an undergrad exchange student from the Ukraine come Toronto, graduating this semester (ie spending his last semester on exchange). But cool article. Ditched PhD for now for google.

In other news, had the AGM for the Outdoors Club tonight.I'm no longer president! I'm so .... erked. Quite surprised, since I was expecting to need to do it again until november at least. But this is cool, they found a good substitute.I feel so weird, somewhat empty, feel like I've been doing this for so long and it feels so weird to pass it on. Well I'll still be president most likely for at least another month until handover. But this is cool, we have a new excited exec.

And now, on an unrelated yet still sourced from the same site topic, anyone want to see Varekai? It starts in August and runs through September, but its very popular, so trying to get tickets as soon as possible.

Aiming to get an evening session on a weekend, so less chance of having to miss a lecture in the weekday. A-class tickets (good seats) are $109 each. A group booking of 10+ people should get us a discount.. Any expressions of interest/disinterest would be welcomed.

Posted by Ice Kachang @ 8:20 PM

Hot is such an immature, fratboi word.

She didn't take offence. Though, funny you should mention it Benny because imho she is in the upper echelon of female Law students. In other words, yes she is very attractive (that means she doesn't have Jennifer Garner man-face, James). That takes into account that female law students generally are already in a league of their own as James mentioned previously. Hmm, good genes must run in her family because she may be related to Chief Justice Spigelman...

Last I saw she was going out with a skaterboi but that was over a year ago I think. Theres still hope Benny Jono!!

This is so awesome. I'm wearing the IT service desk cap tilted hommie style and I see people have queries, but they don't want to ask me coz they think I won't know what I'm talking about so they just end up walking away.

Posted by butters @ 7:41 PM

Was she embarassed?

More importantly is she hot? -- For Jono not me of course

Posted by Katt @ 7:18 PM

Ah yeah. In response to the topic of actresses or public females we find attractive where James said Jennifer Connelly (I can't remember what anyone else said because James' constant ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG Jennifer Connelly @ 16yo in Once Upon a Time in America drowned everyone else out XD).

I found Trillian from Hitchhiker movie with Martin Freeman in it attractive. Unusual name and not very prominent right now though. She was also in Eulogy.

Edit: was just in Tax law. Very boring and fell asleep, even though my lecturer tries to make it interesting for us students by telling many anecdotes. I woke up just in time for one and he was recounting the story of a really unpopular Tax (like vendor duty) that Labour had implemented (forgot which coz I was too drowsy) way back. The tax was spearheaded by a person called Spigelman (treasurer at the time?) - that started ringing bells. He recounted how it flopped and embarrasingly for Spigelman, it had to be withdrawn. He then said "I think his daughter attends this law school" and incidentally the girl was in the class and raised her hand.

Posted by butters @ 3:38 PM

Anyone have plans for the easter? Suggestions? UNSW Break starts good Friday, is that true for everyone else?

Posted by IONize @ 2:57 AM

Jono, WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?! Hmmm, I have a red flaming singlet I got for 18th birthday. I am sure Renee SHOULD REMEMBER THAT! Would you like to try that out too? Lolz.

Hash, can we play at UNSW this Saturday? They going to be open on Easter Saturday? After that, we can go to the city and do something.

btw - no Tennis at West Ryde next week out of respect for the commemoration of the death of a great many pplz' Lord and Saviour. So we will need a non-Christian bound venue if we r to play

Posted by Hash @ 11:30 PM

With regards to your interview with Nvidia, believe it or not, from my bottom-up perspective, I still implied "congratulations, you made it this far which is quite an achievement" (regardless if it was picked up or not) aside from the depersonalisation "you're worth $x capital investment to Nvidia" :p

Jono: the beachLynn: is no more ethically challenged than you are James XD

The rest I concur. BWV? As Bree Van Der Kamp said, "Perception is reality...and if people think I have a drinking problem then I do." I don't think a bottom-up view is anything more to mock than a top-bottom. Denny Crane.

Life is about pain...

Posted by butters @ 5:46 PM

Yummy session indeed.

Diagnosis summary:

Marc: Bleak World View (BWV)Darren: Still in progressJames: "Even more fucked up than thought to be"Lynn: Ethically challangedIrene: Ethically obsessiveJono: MehScott: Avoid all conflicts with a chuckle

Posted by Giacomo @ 3:37 PM

Mmmm, CTO analytical chat sessions: replace star with speech, shaken not stirred, decant. Very therapeutic - must have another sometime.

5am roads are awesome.

Posted by butters @ 12:31 PM

Thursday, April 06, 2006

OMG

Famine in Africa, bombings in Afganistan and now this!

What is this world coming to . . .

`Tis a sad page in our book.

Posted by Hash @ 9:43 PM

Joyce, if it makes you feel any better, I invested in a life time membership in CFN.

Posted by butters @ 7:34 PM

I guess I would've said 'us' too...

Received 3 rejection letters within 2days (my heart almost broke)Thought I can handle it by now ;'(

(Throwing my rubbish in this blog haha Sorry)

Posted by joycey @ 7:03 PM

So it was Jono, Benny, Yi.. who else?

Seriously. That sux. I'm bringing my cleaver next time.

Posted by Giacomo @ 5:36 PM

"they fled in a silver sedan, which police say might have been a Hyundai"

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Wow...just had my first grad job interview today. This company(mbt) had a real easy going culture. Quite like it atm. And one of the question was...."us or them." That's it. When I asked for clarification, they simply said they don't even know what it means...! So before I give you guys MY answer, I wanna ask what you guys would've said. I answered "us" but I'll explain later...

Posted by Hoey the Fish @ 11:06 PM

The creditcard is tied into our homeloan deal so it is activated.Since we haven't used this creditcard at all, I can only presume that Mastercard has been breached. Great. Will take 45 days before we know if we will be getting our money back..

Hash, I wish I thought up this elaborate plan.. Bono would have been awesome. Should have bought the airfares on the creditcard as well. :)

The old SENG days huh? I hope not. I don't want to be doing this DSM assignment into the midsession break. ;)

When you say good old seng days, does that mean you are in Melbourne GP while he's slaving away? XD

Posted by butters @ 7:51 PM

You were in Melbourne for F1 too Joyce?

hahah what a coincidence.

Good luck on the cook off this weekend, looks like me and yi are back to good old seng days

Posted by Katt @ 7:49 PM

Before you can use a credit card, it needs to be activated first. That could already be a point of failure. Did they activate it or did the crooks activate it and start using it? Most likely it would be a leak in Mastercard if it is as you describe.

I wouldn't worry about it, its very unlikely you would get charged for it because its so obviously outside your spending habit. These things happen a lot, my sister's credit card (primary holder is my mum) got her card defrauded while she was (and still is) in London. They have whole squads dedicated to tracking down irregular use.

I don't like submitting creditcard details online either. I was gonna sell Pintara online on ebay so I needed my credit card details on there just in case I get into dodgy dealings. Now I can't remove it at all...

My cuisine will reign supreme...next week.

Benny, Batman Begins 2-disc special edition is $13 at JBHifi.

Posted by butters @ 7:36 PM

Damn Yi. That sucks! That's exactly why I hate putting up credit card details online. But then again, your parents have NEVER used it, so it's kinda weird to have any of your credit card details recorded...especially in Spain.

Posted by Hoey the Fish @ 1:53 PM

perhaps there's a breach on mastercard's end.are they going to cancel the charges?

Posted by john @ 10:49 AM

Woah Yi!

Nice Scam, go to Spain with some friends, charge it to ur parents credit card and pretend u don't know how it happened.

Nice one! Will remember in the future

Posted by Hash @ 10:19 AM

My parent's Mastercard has incurred 7 charges made in Spain for 4 tickets to Bono, something from Buy.com and some other items, adding to about $350. This creditcard has never even been used, let alone used online. No idea how they got the number, expiration and the CCV.

If you have a creditcard, signup to online banking and check the statement regularly!

Posted by tucoti @ 12:36 AM

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Marc,You have so lost it. It's:BEOWEOWBEOWEOWEOWOEW!

Down for Lynn's. I don't think Iron Chef marc is quite ready yet. Or are you? ;)

Oh man, all this beowbewo is giving me star cravings. Can we squeeze some CFN in between tennis and lynn's? CFN is pretty much enroute! Good going.

Posted by Giacomo @ 11:58 PM

Kodak requires you to be registered first to view other people's albums.

Maybe we can still do cook-off...but at Lynn's place.

Been looking at hosting options. $88/year for 500MB space and 15GB bandwidth/month or $49.95/year for 100MB space and 5GB bandwidth/month. Perhaps something to consider now that we'll have our accounts cut...

Posted by butters @ 10:19 PM

the links not workin? perhaps need to sign in in order to see.. I'm not too good with computers so I will have to show you guys manually when i get the chance.

But yea for me F1 wasnt as exciting. couldnt see much of the cars as they went pass too quickly while making excessive noice. The weather was cold down in melb, lots of unexpected crashes/break downs, However still a good year for the renaults I guess.

so yea wasn't ... sexy according to the urbandictionary.

Posted by joycey @ 9:52 PM

What happened to Asian Cookout as promised last week? Or is this it?

Posted by Bonobo @ 9:29 PM

Very, jono. I been talking about urbandictionary for ages now :p

I would like some reavers with vulture wheels, zealot upgrade legs, shuttle speed and stimpacks that make them go doodeedoododoooodeedoodeeeedoo

Sounds good, I'm down for Saturday. I've procured some dumplings so I'll bring them along.

Posted by butters @ 7:06 PM

Dinner this Saturday evening at Lynn's place.

6pm.

Apt 1205Building 8, Spring StBondi Junction

So far I think James, Scott, me, are coming. Let us know if you're up for it

Posted by IONize @ 4:06 PM

I'm very disappointed with BergerCraft. They don't even offer fried zerglings! We were talking about that like, four years ago.

Hash: Any time on sat for tennis is fine with me. I have a finance test next week anyway. So i can study in the morning.

Joyce: How was F1? The link doesn't work for me either. My opinion.....For me, Australian GP was not too great. I will blame the weather, for being so cold, which leads to the driver's inability to keep their tyres warm. Ferrari does have the pace, when tyres are warm. But Schuey pushed too hard, and understeered into the wall.

Monday, April 03, 2006

hey jono jwan584 is actually me..no clue wats happenin but I get some ideas that I could be outa here anytime huh

oh well for those who're interested in F1 I took some photos at the recent Australian GrandPrix.Never really a fan of F1 but dad took me so I thought I might as well go coz I never been to one.my only conclusion: F1 cars look beautiful...

My cousin sent me this: zomg zomg zomg!!!! This is something I feel duty bound to buy. In hindsight, it is probably an April Fools joke. Humour me for a moment while I think of playing a game of 3D Aeon (that would actually kick ass, Darren XD).

Posted by butters @ 9:55 PM

loljwan584 - we shall miss u (unless u r revived, then we won't)Send out an IM msg to inform everyone of the new location

Jono, if u really want to get James' account bak, there is a way, but u will need all of ur 1337 outdoor 5k1||z.

Bust into CSE mainframes (if u have comp skillz) or bust into the homes of every CSE admin and force em to put the site bak up.

I believe Ice Age 2 is coming out soon (or has come out) Who wishes to see it?

Or for those with more archaic tastes - Basic Instict 2 is out. Starring the original (well 'refurbished') Sharon Stone

Or for those closet klepto's - Inside man is showing as well

Posted by Hash @ 1:55 PM

As long as James' account is disabled, it is not possible. Any page retrieved from James' account is a 403, so its probably best to bookmark this as the new blog, unless James successfully negotiates to have his account permanently reinstated. Go James!

Posted by butters @ 9:25 AM

Sweet, good job Marc, thanks.

Makes us appreciate how well the blog keeps our comm. together.

No chance you could redirect jwan584 old address to mhpa462 could you? For the people who haven't got the updated link.

Alternatively we could just email everyone in the contributors list on the right.

Posted by IONize @ 1:09 AM

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Wondering if we can get Tennis in the arvo next Saturday.say 3 onwards?